


oh the weather outside is frightful (but you are so delightful)

by thundersnowstorm



Series: from what i've tasted of desire [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: ASOIAF Rare Pair Week, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, ninety percent of this is fluff, the other ten percent is also fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-11-05 16:05:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17922023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thundersnowstorm/pseuds/thundersnowstorm
Summary: In retrospect, visiting the North in wintertime and Dorne in summertime might not have been the best idea. Robb and Rhaenys make the best of it.





	oh the weather outside is frightful (but you are so delightful)

**Author's Note:**

> Day three of asoiafrarepairs week - summer/winter

_winter_

 

"I feel like a marshmallow," complains Rhaenys. Her coat makes her about four times wider than she usually is, and all the layers of down and wool could clothe a small family. Her face is all but buried in the folds of a scarf almost as long as she is tall, yet somehow the wind manages to keep wriggling in through the crevices. 

Robb, who is wearing little more than a light jacket and scarf, just grins. "What are you talking about, it's positively balmy out! It's hardly below freezing!"

The look she sends him could peel paint. "I am going to push you into a snowdrift."

He laughs and wraps his arms around her. She leans into him, his body a furnace behind her. "It's your first Northern snowfall, this is exciting!"

"Yes, yes, it's very pretty, now can we enjoy it from inside your parents' nice, heated house?" she says, because even in gloves, her fingers are freezing.

Robb grabs her hand and pulls her reluctantly forward. "C'mon, you'll warm up if we start moving." They are in the woods behind the Stark house, on a path that winds through snow-covered trees. Grey Wind is just ahead, having the time of his life jumping through snowdrifts with his tongue lolling out.

"I'm only coming with because I was promised hot chocolate," she informs him. "Wintertime hikes." She exaggerates a shiver. "Is everyone in the North this crazy, or is it just you?"

"You're dating me, so what does that make you?" Robb's eyes gleam with mirth. "And I'll have you know that my hot chocolate is the best damn hot chocolate this side of the Narrow Sea."

"That's a big claim you're making there, I hope you've got the stuff to back it up."

"Oh baby, I've got all the stuff." Robb waggles his eyebrows.

Rhaenys can't help it - she doubles over at the waist laughing. When she straightens back up, finger wiping a stray tear away, Robb is looking immensely proud of himself.

"You are the most ridiculous man I have ever met."

He slings an arm around her shoulders, tucking her into his side. "I try my best."

The walk is rather nice, she'll give Robb that much. The trees glitter with ice, their branches bent from the weight of the snow. There is an odd beauty to the land that reminds her, of all things, of Dorne. Above, the sky is a cloudless blue so bright it hurts to look at for long. Trudging through the snow is slow going, and Rhaenys is working up a fair sweat, but the eerie silence is oddly pleasant.

They reach the top of a small hill and pause to look down at the frozen pond at its base. Grey Wind trots down to go investigate.

Robb wraps an arm around her waist. "Thanks for coming with," he says, breaking the silence. "I think if we'd stayed in that house much longer I'd have lost my mind."

She gives him a quizzical look. "What are you talking about? Your family's sweet, and no one's threatened to burn the house down, which is more than my father's family can say."

"Oh, I love my family to death," he agrees. "But all of them, in one house at once plus extended family and significant others? It's a bit much."

Rhaenys hums in understanding. There are maybe twenty people in the Stark family home at the moment, which, though large, is still not built to hold that many. "Yeah, that's family. Gotta love them, but preferably in smaller doses."

"And preferably smaller doses of liquor," Robb grouses. "If Uncle Brandon gets drunk and starts talking about that time he and Mom dated again, we're going back home to Riverrun early."

"What, don't like hearing about how hot your mom was in college?" she teases. Robb groans.

"Please, not you too."

She pats his arm consolingly. "Don't worry, I won't leave you for your mom. Well, not unless she makes that banana bread again."

Robb nods. "That's fair. It's some pretty good banana bread."

"I'm glad you're so understanding," Rhaenys says, then laughs. "C'mon, let's keep moving, before I start getting hypothermia."

They start walking again, Robb whistling to call for Grey Wind.

"Hey Rhae?"

"Hmm?"

"If I threw a snowball at you, what would you do to me?"

Rhaenys whirls around, eyes narrowed. "Don't you dare."

The snow hits her dead center in the chest. Robb grins unapologetically.

"You're a dead man, Stark."

 

 _…_  

_summer_

 

"This was a mistake," groans Robb, burying his face in his arms. 

Rhaenys bites her lip, trying not to laugh. The entire area from Robb's ears down to the small of his back has turned a painful shade of pink, the skin peeling in a few spots. The freckles across his nose are hardly noticeable anymore, lost among the sunburn.

"I have some aloe vera," she says. "Mom said it should help."

"Please," he says, almost begging. "Gods, why didn't you warn me how bad the sun was here? I put sunscreen on, but clearly that was useless."

She squeezes some of the clear, viscous gel onto her palm. "I didn't know this was going to happen! I'm Dornish, I couldn't get a sunburn if I wanted to. Here, move over a bit."

Robb wiggles over to let her perch beside him on the bed. He's only wearing a pair of loose shorts that ride low on his hips, and she takes a moment to appreciate the look. If it weren't for the angry burn stretching down his back, she would be suggesting putting the bed to a very different sort of use.

He sighs as her hands begin spreading the aloe vera, massaging it into his overheated skin. His eyes flicker closed. "Gods, that feels good," he says, low and hoarse. "A little bit to the - oh yeah, that's the stuff."

"Careful Stark," she says, amused. "My mother might think we're doing something entirely different in here if you keep those noises up."

If it were possible for Robb to blanch right now, he would have. "Don't even joke about that, she'd murder me."

Rhaenys laughs. Elia Martell is a tiny woman, and she finds it difficult to think of her mother as scary in any form. "I'm an adult, I don't think it's that shocking for me to be having sex with my boyfriend." Robb gets a dopey look on his face when she calls him her boyfriend, as he always does. Rhaenys thinks it's cute, if a bit silly.

"Didn't you say she once made your Uncle Viserys cry?" he says.

"Oh I'd almost forgotten about that," she says, laughing. "That was a fun day. Yeah, you're right, Mom could definitely kill you if she wanted. But she wouldn't, she thinks you're sweet."

Sweet, if a bit rough about the edges, had been her mother's exact words, but she had said them with approval. She had also told Rhaenys that as long as she never dated a musician, she would be supportive, and Oberyn had almost broken a rib laughing. 

Robb grins. "Your mom thinks I'm sweet."

"Yeah, yeah, don't let it go to your head," she says fondly.

"Hey, it's a big deal!" he protests. "You freaked out before meeting my parents."

"Yeah, because your dad still holds a grudge against my father. Which, fair, but it was very stressful." Frankly it's astounding sometimes that she and Robb ever got together, given their families' history together, but somehow it hasn't been that much of a problem. Jon still thinks it's weird, to have his sister and kind-of-brother dating, but Rhaenys has pretty much just told him to suck it up.

"Hey, I guess your dad and his side of the family are the only ones left to meet," says Robb, and Rhaenys wrinkles her nose.

"The only Targaryens worth meeting are Dany, who you already know, and Grandma Rhaella."

"I do have to meet your dad at some point though," he points out.

"Why, you gonna ask him for permission for my hand?" Rhaenys asks disparagingly, then flushes when she realizes what she implied. "Not that we're going to - I mean, it's still early and - never mind." She presses her lips together tightly to keep herself from incriminating herself further.

Robb pushes himself up to a seated position. "I get what you meant, relax love. We're still young, we've got our whole lives ahead of us." They've been dating for over a year and a half now, and more than a few of Rhaenys's friends have made teasing remarks about wedding bells in their future, but she is not even close to ready for that step. Robb is still in college, and she's got law school to worry about.

Rhaenys leans against his shoulder, careful to not put too much pressure on the sunburn. "It's not that I wouldn't want - well, you know what I mean." It's not about Robb, not really. They've talked at length about it, about how skittish Rhaenys gets about the subject of marriage after everything that went down between her parents. "How's your back?"

He doesn't say anything about the change in subject, for which she is thankful. "Sore, but the aloe helped. Why did we think it was a good idea to come to Sunspear in the middle of summer?"

"Honestly, it's not that much cooler in winter," she says. "But I like it. I don't know you Northerners do it." She shivers exaggeratedly.

"Oh, we've learned the best ways to keep warm," says Robb, waggling his eyebrows.

Rhaenys rolls her eyes. "You're lucky you're cute," she tells him, and Robb laughs.

**Author's Note:**

> As much as I love Dorne and the North, I would hate living in either place. All seasons are awful and humans were not made for weather outside of 65-75 degrees.
> 
> Edit for the fic is [here.](https://thundersnowstorm.tumblr.com/post/183071566001/oh-the-weather-outside-is-frightful-but-you-are)


End file.
